7 travelers at this place:

Two Amtrak(train company) employees were killed in Washington. Our train was consequently 2 hours late. We eventually arrived in Narangansett to find that the rented house on a fabulous street was bordering on uninhabitable. Shock, disbelief, anger, disappointment. This is the week of 4th July holidays. There is nowhere available in town, we have to stay here.
After a visit to the local Benny's we had purchased 2 inflatable mattresses and the stores whole stock of coat hangers. The landlord eventually came over and replaced one of the mattresses and agreed to return tomorrow to fix the shower.
We met up with family, ate at a local restaurant with plenty of wine and returned to make the house as hospitable as possible for our first night in Rhode Island.
It can only get better. Surely!!
Unfortunately this soured our arrival although we were still delighted to meet up with our Australian family and meet Mike (the groom).Read more

Hi Christine - didn't realise about the blog just found the link from my emails. Had an interesting read and enjoying the photos. Sorry to hear about your accommodation sounds a bit grim but hope you can laugh about it afterwards. Have missed hearing for you so am glad I have linked in. Enjoy the rest of your stay - family time can be so precious - and looking forward to further blogs. Xx

I admit we moped about a fair bit this morning, coming to terms with our lot but by evening we put on our glad rags and off we went to a welcome dinner organised by the grooms mum.
We were collected by minibus and driven to Westerley to a local brewery. We met Mikes family and friends and ate lobster, mussels, clams and chicken. This was followed by chocolate brownies, cookies and water melon. A really lovely meal and plenty of local wine and beer. It was a lovely idea to meet the grooms family before the wedding.
On the way home on the minibus we sang mostly Leeds United and Yorkshire songs giving a loud rendition of Ilkley Moor Ba'tat.Read more

The wedding was at a beach club, half the deck was under cover and half exposed. It was grey and breezy but comfortable. We had all enjoyed getting ready with the help of a bottle of prosecco. The ceremony was outside and quite different to a British wedding, less formal and more personal. Emily's dress was beautiful and very her. We then had canapés which were tuna, scallops, chicken, and crab cakes. Mikes brother gave the first speech followed by a very amusing speech by Thea and lastly a witty and irreverent speech by Pete. This was all followed by a great buffet. Clam chowder, clam stuffies, deep fried clams, portobello mushroom sliders, lobster slider, chicken slider. This was all followed by strawberries, berry coulie, chocolate brownie and cookies. The food was amazing. We danced the night away and walked home tired and happyRead more

Busier than usual day... lots of fun, and we still made it to the hotel at a reasonable hour. Route 1 was more highway-ish than we would have liked today, though there was generally a decent grassy shoulder. Said good bye to our views of the Long Island Sound. The coastal road has been beautiful. The bouncy bungee thing at Adventure Land was second to the one at the EnKa Fair, but still fun. Miscellaneous photos below are 1) close up of a tree that, along with its neighbors, was covered with zillions of caterpillars. 2) There are many stone walls here made with no mortar... not sure why they don't all fall down.Read more

Funny little collection of shops, greenhouses, gardens, along with emus goats and chickens. The emus were happy to be patted, though one made a good try at stealing Nate's glasses. The photo is nate recoiling after the emu made contact with the glasses.

Walked 20 yesterday, so today would be just a 10 miler and we would have time to go paddle boarding this afternoon. Website said they were open till 6:00, but when we called at 2:45, they said they were closing early. 🙁. Still, we had a really nice day The motel (Phil and Ann's Sunset Motel)l is bare bones in the rooms, but outside there's a big field, with all sorts of games. We played shuffle board and swam, got take out from a nearby restaurant, and we're watching baseball. Laundromat said aren't as plentiful around here as I thought they would be... resorted to doing some wash in the sink today. Tomorrow's hotel has laundry facilities (yay, Holiday Inn!) so we'll buy some laundry soap and wash everything properly,Read more

Another great start. 5 miles into a 17.5 day. Stopping for a snack at Dave's Market: organic blueberries, a big Honeycrisp apple, and diet cream soda. Hmmm... one of these things is not like the others. All delicious. Nate is catching up on his video game, and I'm planning our next stop. The woman who owned the kayak rental place from yesterday was fascinated by our walk and has been texting me ideas for things to do (mostly places to eat) on our walk today.Read more

We sailed to Block Island from Newport. Not much to report aside from the usual unusual Mike & Kirsten-ism; my over-exaggeration of waves and Mikes sudden awareness that If Gaia is gaining on another vessel…. we can race them (and he goes from a wine and cheese cruising mentality of ‘we get there when we get there’ to barking commands ‘Trim the gennie! Edge up the traveler windward! We got em!’).
There were 4 foot seas and rounding the Northern tip of Block Island was, as always, a welcoming view. There’s a shallow spit of land that curves out like an arm from the Block Island bluffs that are even more beautiful from the top. We anchored in the salt pond, which has a VERY narrow cut of water that funnels into the harbor. It was my third time letting out the anchor, which can be, as I learned, a delicate process of lowering at the right moment and letting the boat rest to get your bearings. Mike tied different colored string on the anchor rode every 10 feet so you can see how much rode you have sitting out. This is a GREAT idea and I highly recommend it to anyone anchoring…. But do note that over time the first 80 feet becomes coated in mud and the old neon colors before are brown. So when Mike asked me how much rode we had out half way through… I dunnno…( I guess I need to practice counting or something).

BI Sat/ Sun
ulia and Amy ventured out to the great BI of RI! Our friends still remember us! And they brought beer!!! Saturday morning meeting Julia & Amy was the first time Mike & I came ashore. I had forgotten how timeless and close everything was for walking distance. A 15 minute walk and we met them from the ferry ride over. Our first order of business was to get some serious boat napping & relaxing in, afterall, they did take the first ferry in to BI. We then had ourselves a classic BI beachday. Frisbee, beer, meandering, beach. The day ended in a wet dinghy adventure to cocktails at the infamous ‘Oar’ and somehow… about 4 hours later… we emerged for another dingy adventure across the great pond.
Sunday we made it our mission to find the maze. The maze is for lack of words, really neat. It’s an intricately woven network of grassy paths that lead you to the BI bluffs, a few ponds, beaches, and always seems to end and begin in private property to some extent. P.S.I have never gone into the maze and not found myself lost at some point. The larger the group, the better the confusion. With a happy go lucky crew of Amy, Julia, Mike, and myself…. This was by far the closest we have ever come to not getting lost. We did, however, manage to miss their expected ferry back home… but nbd. We were all in BI.Read more